Dr. Peter Brown is an intern at Manhattan’s worst hospital, with a talent for medicine, a shift from hell, and a past he’d prefer to keep hidden. Whether it’s a blocked circumflex artery or a plan to land a massive malpractice suit, he knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.
Pietro “Bearclaw” Brnwna is a hitman for the mob, with a genius for violence, a well-earned fear of sharks, and an … and an overly close relationship with the Federal Witness Relocation Program. More likely to leave a trail of dead gangsters than a molecule of evidence, he’s the last person you want to see in your hospital room.
Nicholas LoBrutto, aka Eddy Squillante, is Dr. Brown’s new patient, with three months to live and a very strange idea: that Peter Brown and Pietro Brnwa might — just might — be the same person…
Now, with the mob, the government, and death itself descending on the hospital, Peter has to buy time and do whatever it takes to keep his patients, himself, and his last shot at redemption alive. To get through the next eight hours — and somehow beat the reaper.
Spattered in adrenaline-fueled action and bone-saw-sharp dialogue, Beat the Reaper is a debut thriller so utterly original you won’t be able to guess what happens next, and so shockingly entertaining you won’t be able to put it down.
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I did not expect to enjoy “Beat the Reaper” by Josh Bazell as much as I did. I found the audiobook on sale and figured, “why not?” I listened to it on a road trip and sat in the driveway to finish the chapter. It’s a fast-paced thriller that has humor and heart. It was so entertaining, I purchased the book too.
Okay, I’ll admit to a soft spot for books I describe as “a box full of crazy.” Beat the Reaper certainly fits that description. An exercise in audacious bad taste from page one, it takes on both Mob procedurals and medical thrillers and leaves them with bloody noses (and other things).
Books of this sort need an antihero protagonist, and this one …
One of the best! Thoroughly enjoyable! A fiction book with footnotes! The protagonist is strong, like Jack Reacher. I learned some things from this book!